OH, THAT THEY HAD SUCH A HEART AS THIS ALWAYS

Michael Ryan

At the end of last year, I invited people to follow me on the Bible Reading Plan this year and to receive my occasional brief writing on a day’s reading. I thought I would share a recent sample to see if you would like to receive these. I’m reflecting briefly here on Deuteronomy 5:22-27.

It is helpful to know that the 10 commandments are found in Exodus 20. Of course, anyone could just ask Google, “Where are the 10 commandments?” and find their way there eventually. What is less well known are that the 10 commandments are recorded twice. The second, and less well known, is in today’s reading. But I want to direct your attention to a verse immediately following the giving of the 10 commandments as recorded in Deuteronomy 5:

Deuteronomy 5:22 (ESV) “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

This would have been a terrifying sight. It is good for us to slow down here long enough to consider what is happening. Our senses are perhaps dulled by dramatic special effects in movies. It’s easy for us to read quickly over this and not notice what is here. God’s word is so sparse in its language. Here’s what I mean by that:

I was discussing with a friend a few days ago the intense detail of a couple of classic novels. He told me that in one of the novels of Proust, the author described the crumbling of a cookie for 43 pages! That’s extreme! It only goes to show, in stark contrast, the prose of the Bible, which I have tried to describe previously as written with condensed vocabulary.  A hugely momentous event is described here in Deuteronomy 5:22 in only 48 words! Just to casually read through this text you might run by it and not notice the drama here. But if we slow down, pay attention, and imagine what they experienced, we too can experience something of the voice of God out of the midst of the darkness and see the mountain burning with fire! We need to feel the terror of what that would have been like for them. God doesn’t have to recreate the experience for us in our current time. The Holy Spirit is in no way limited in revealing the glory of God to us, with all the force they experienced. God will do that in you and me now if we will linger here long enough and seek to enter the event with our mind and heart.

It’s no wonder they said to Moses, “Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and we survived it!” They were stunned that they were still alive, but they were also sure that they couldn’t stand any more. In verse 25 they begged Moses to go and meet God for them.

God said to Moses, of their reaction in verse 29, “Oh, that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!”

As I prayed through this text, I pleaded with God to create just this sort of trembling in us. It is through this huge vision of God that we can see the grace of God as truly amazing. It is through such a big view of God that a spirit of repentance and humility is cultivated. Jesus invites those in him now to pray, “Our Father” to this same God before whom these people trembled! This passage helps us to pray intimately without losing a sense of awe.

Email me at gene.cornett@bethanyplace.com if you would like to receive similar updates. You would receive two or three per week.
Sunday’s message is from John 20:11-18 and is called Get A Grip. You can see the outline here.